


The most memorable Wedding in Los Angeles

by katie1999



Category: Zorro (TV 1990)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-08-13 19:14:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20179321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katie1999/pseuds/katie1999
Summary: When Victoria announces her engagement to one of her suitors, Zorro tries everything to hold her, breaking all the rules. Will it be enough to change her mind when Zorro can never marry her because it would mean his death? Plain romance, NOT a challenge story but still celebrating the 100th birthday with an unconventional story of the man who is trapped between two lives.If you leave a comment, I'll know that someone is reading and I'll update faster and add more stories instead of posting only on fanfiction net





	1. The Engagement

The most memorable Wedding in Los Angeles

Disclaimer: This story was written solely for the enjoyment of other Zorro fans and is not intended to infringe on any copyrights held by Goodman/Rosen Productions, New World Television, Zorro Productions, the estate of Johnston McCulley or anyone else.

Chapter 1

"Did you hear the news about Victoria?" Alejandro asked Diego over lunch.

"What news?" Diego asked, alarmed. After he had ridden all night as Zorro, he had risen late and was still tired from his lack of sleep.

"I'd never thought that of her, but obviously it's true."

"What news? What about Victoria?" Diego asked again, irritated.

"Victoria announced her engagement today."

"Her engagement to Zorro?" Diego guessed though they had agreed to keep it a secret.

"No, not to Zorro," his father corrected him. "She's going to marry Don Pablo Punson."

"Victoria and Don Pablo? That can't be!" Diego said. "He proposed to her before, playing the guitar in the tavern, and she rejected his proposal straight away and even threatened to burn his guitar if he didn't stop singing."

"She spent the night with Don Pablo Punson at his hacienda. They both returned about mid-morning to the pueblo. Of course, Don Pablo did the right thing and announced their engagement. The wedding will take place in three weeks."

"There must be a mistake. She is in love with Zorro!" Diego said, trying to hide his shock.

"Didn't we all think so?" his father said. "It seems she was tired of waiting, and now she has chosen someone else. I'd never thought she'd spend the night with him before the wedding. That's really scandalous. It's good that they don't want to wait. Who knows how long this has been going on."

"Maybe we should talk to Victoria first and give her the chance to explain herself?" Diego suggested.

"She spent the night with him. What else is there to say? No matter what, her reputation is ruined. I will ride to the pueblo later and congratulate her to her engagement. Do you want to join me?"

"I don't know yet. I have to check my experiences first." Diego excused himself quickly after dessert to slip into the cave where he could let his emotions run free. He sat down at his desk and hid his face in his hands. He had lost Victoria. How could this happen? Hadn't they kissed only a week ago? Victoria had assured him of her love and promised to wait for him. And now she was going to marry another?

Z Z Z

After siesta, Diego joined his father on his ride to the pueblo, pretending he wanted to congratulate her on her engagement too.

The tavern was more crowded than usual for a normal weekday and Diego noticed how the men threw glances at Victoria while she was busy serving her customers.

"Hola Victoria," his father said friendly, as she came to serve them. "I heard congratulations are in order though your engagement to Don Pablo is quite a surprise."

"Thank you, Don Alejandro," Victoria said with a forced smile.

"Is everything all right?" Diego asked. "You don't look very happy. May I ask why you suddenly agreed to marry Don Pablo? I thought you were in love with Zorro?"

"I'm fine, Diego, and my engagement is none of your business," Victoria rebuked him. "What can I get you to drink?"

"I don't know what to think about this, Father," Diego said, after Victoria had left their table. "I can't believe she suddenly fell in love with Don Pablo."

"It may not be a love match, but Don Pablo is rich and can offer her a home and a family; something that Zorro never can. In any case she'll be better off than with an outlaw. Who wants to blame her if she's tired of waiting though the circumstances aren't the best either, considering her ruined reputation."

"Father, you can't really believe that of Victoria."

"It doesn't matter why she agreed to marry Don Pablo, but I don't think there will be any future for her and Zorro. Why would Zorro take her back now?" Alejandro shrugged.

"Father, please, don't talk about her like that," Diego said, looking concerned in Victoria's direction. Was his father right? Had she really spent the night with Don Pablo? Was everything lost now? With a frown he noticed Don Pablo sitting at a table in the back of the tavern with his friends, ordering more wine on the house to celebrate the engagement and from their inebriated state it wasn't their first bottle.

Diego followed Victoria into the kitchen, as she took the empty bottle to replace it. She turned around with a fright as she hadn't heard him coming.

"Don Pablo is having a good time with his friends celebrating and from their noise I'm guessing they have been at it for some time. How long have they been celebrating on your cost? Since the morning?" he guessed, and when Victoria only bit her lip, he knew he was right. "Why haven't you joined the happy celebration? Do you want to tell me what happened?"

For a moment she looked as if she wanted to cry, but then she pressed her lips together to suppress her tears and shook her head. "I'm fine, Diego. Why can't you leave me alone?"

He sighed. "If you need a friend to talk to, I'm here." As he left the kitchen, he passed by Don Pablo and his friend who had started to grow impatient and ask why it took her so long to bring the wine.

"I'm not sure everything went right with Victoria's engagement," Diego stated on the ride home with his father. "Don Pablo was way too happy, and Victoria appeared more sad than happy."

"You may be right, Diego," his father said, "but with her ruined reputation, it's her only option to marry Don Pablo. She may not have planned it, but after some time she will realize that it's better to marry and have a family now. With our current alcalde Zorro will never be free to marry her, if he doesn't die in his fight."

His father had expressed his greatest fear, and it left him depressed. Was there no more future for him and Victoria?


	2. No explanations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zorro tries to talk to Victoria

Chapter 2

In the evening Zorro waited in Victoria's room, and she wasn't surprised to see him as if she had expected him.   
“Zorro, it's good to see you,” she said hesitantly.

“Is it?” Zorro asked. “I heard the news today. Is it true that you want to marry Don Pablo? I thought we had an understanding?” he asked, hurt.

“We did, but I realized that you can never marry me as long as there's a price on your head.” She turned her head, avoiding meeting his look.

“And that's why you want to marry Don Pablo?” Zorro grabbed her by the shoulders and made her face him. “Do you love him? Is it true that you spent the night with him?”

“No, it isn't as you think. You are the only one I love and Don Pablo didn't touch me,” Victoria assured him, putting her hands on his chest.

He grabbed her by her forearms and pushed her away. “How can I believe you if you want to marry him?”

Then she started to cry. “I love you, but I have no choice. There's no way we can be together. If you marry me, the alcalde will use me to capture and hang you, or I will lose you by marrying Don Pablo.” As she covered her face with her hands, he couldn't stand it. He drew her into his arms, feeling her body shake from her sobbing.  
“Querida, please don't cry,” he whispered. “I love you.” He pulled her hands from her face and started to kiss her tears away. 

“I love you too, and I can't stand to lose you.” She returned his kisses while she kept on crying. 

“Mi Querida, I can't see your tears. I'll do anything to make you happy again.”

Later when he held her naked body in his arms, he couldn't quite remember how the situation had gotten out of control. They had both been desperate to lose each other and in their despair they had given in to their passion.

“You're mine now. Nothing can take that away from me,” he whispered. Tenderly, he caressed her face in the darkness, before he kissed her tenderly. “I owe you to show my face.” Victoria had extinguished the light earlier, before he they had removed their clothing including his mask. Now he reached across her for the light on the nightstand, but Victoria intercepted his arm before he could light the candle.  
“No! Don't! I must not know.”  
“Why? Do you think you can't love me as myself?” he asked, hurt.  
“It's not that. I want you to be safe. Nobody can force me to reveal your name if I don't know it. I'll never betray you.”  
“Do you want to wait until we get married?” He smiled as he kissed her cheek.  
“Nothing has changed. I will marry Don Pablo. Zorro can't marry me as long as there's a price on his head and there's no end in sight. You know that and that's why you must go.”  
He felt the tears on his skin as she buried her face in his shoulder. 

“But I thought...,” he started, confused, while he held her. “I thought you had changed your mind about us when you started to kiss me … I thought you loved me. I know now that there wasn't anything between you and Don Pablo at his hacienda when I made you mine tonight.”

“I love you, but there's no future for us,” she cried. “Please, leave now before the soldiers find you. And don't forget this.” She withdrew from his arms and turned to her nightstand, opening the drawer and retrieving something after some fumbling, she handed it to him. When he closed his fist around it, he realized it was his ring.   
“Victoria, why? I love you. Please, don't do this,” he begged her.

“You have to leave,” she said, hiding her face in the pillow, but he felt the shaking of her body from her sobbing. 

“Don't cry. I love you and always will.” He tenderly stroked her head and kissed her cheek, before he turned around and dressed. “We'll talk about this again. I can't lose you after this wonderful night.” 

As Victoria refused to turn around, he silently climbed out of the window and mounted Toronado to ride home. 

Z Z Z

In the morning Diego rode to the pueblo again, hoping Victoria might be more willing to talk, but she simply brought him his coffee and cut short any attempts to switch the topic to her engagement, stating she didn't want to talk. Like the day before, Don Pablo and his friends occupied a table, ordering drinks on the house and keeping Victoria busy.

Z Z Z

At night, he slipped into her room again as Zorro. “Victoria?” he whispered into the darkness. He heard some rustling of the sheets, and then she was in his arms again.   
“Zorro.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her head in his chest.  
“I have come to talk. I know what we did last night was wrong. We should have waited.”  
“Waited for what? There isn't any future for us anymore.” She started to cry again, and he bent down to kiss her, feeling her warm body under the thin nightshirt she wore.   
“Don't cry, Querida. Please, I love you. Don't leave me. I need you so much.” Then he couldn't stop kissing her anymore, lifting her in his arms and carrying her to the bed.

There hadn't been much chance for talking when Victoria made him to leave two hours later, concerned for his safety.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria explains why she wants to marry Don Pablo

Chapter 3

Today was the last chance to talk to Victoria about her wedding, because tomorrow the ceremony was scheduled. He had tried to talk to her before, but she had always refused to tell him the true reason why she wanted to marry Don Pablo. Whenever he had tried, she had started to cry, and it had ended in kissing and making love, and then she had thrown him out of the bed, telling him to leave before the soldiers spotted Toronado. The last three weeks he had visited her every night, and he had eventually given up talking about her wedding plans to save her the tears, and they had enjoyed their time together, limited as it was while he was always on the run from the soldiers and her upcoming wedding.

Zorro had chosen the late afternoon shortly before the end of siesta when Victoria was about to start her preparations for dinner. It was enough time to talk but not enough time to get distracted by her kisses and tears as the times before.

"Victoria?"

"Zorro!" she looked up from her cutting table, startled to see him enter her kitchen at this hour when he used to come after bed time. A minute later she was in his arms, kissing him, and the feeling of her soft body pressed against his made him want more. He wanted to feel her warm skin under his hands and taste more than her lips as he kissed her passionately. With effort, he released her and distanced himself from her, folding his arms in front of his chest to better withstand the temptation of touching her.

"I didn't come for that."

"No?" the way she looked at him made him almost forget why he came.

Maybe he should have taken more time and come earlier? Or if they cleared the kitchen table? He shook his head to get himself under control gain. "I have come to talk," he declared.

"Talk? What's there to talk?"

"In the recent weeks you have kissed me and loved me, but you haven't told me why you want to marry another man, when I asked you to marry me. I asked you more than once why you want to marry Don Pablo tomorrow, and since you refused to explain to me why I got my own information. Do you know that the only thing that prevents Don Pablo from losing his hacienda is the prospect of marrying you and getting hold of your tavern? Why do you want to marry him when he only wants your money?"

"Did you get that information from Diego? In the past weeks, he's been in the pueblo constantly, pretending to make inquiries for his paper, asking questions about Don Pablo and trying to make me tell him the reason for my engagement."

"It doesn't matter where I get my information. I want to know how Don Pablo convinced you to give up on us? Tell me why!"

"Because I was stupid, and he tricked me, and now there's no way out," she cried.

"What happened?" Zorro asked, alarmed.

"I rejected Don Pablo when the matchmaker proposed him to me, and he was offended and that's why he planned his revenge."

"How?"

"Don Pablo asked me to accompany him to a party, and he told me that I owed him that for humiliating him in the tavern, so I agreed, but it wasn't as he told me." Ashamed, Victoria looked to the ground.

"What did he do?" Zorro gently touched her chin to make her face him.

"Instead of driving to the party, he drove to his hacienda, saying he had forgotten something. When I followed him inside, he presented me with a private dinner he had prepared. When I said I'd rather go to the party than having dinner with him, he told me I couldn't leave, until I had listened to his offer."

"What offer?"

"He proposed to me again and said that he'd be happy to marry me since Zorro never could. I told him that I didn't want to marry him and wanted to wait for Zorro to be free. Then he told me he wouldn't give me a choice. He manacled me and dragged me into his room. When I asked him why he wanted to force a woman into marrying him who obviously didn't want him, he finally revealed his true intentions to me. As you found out too, he no longer has any money because of gambling or whatever. That's why he decided to marry me to get my tavern. He told me that I could never marry Zorro because it would be his death and that I had no other choice but to marry him now."

"Did he try to force himself upon you?" Zorro asked angrily.

"No. I managed to snatch a knife from the dinner table and told him that he would never be safe in his sleep again and eventually find himself with a knife in his chest if he tried that, and he believed me," Victoria said confidently.

"As he should," Zorro said with a smile.

"I asked him to let me go and told him that I'd never marry him, but he refused. Instead, he explained why I couldn't marry Zorro if I didn't want to be responsible for his death. Though I didn't want to believe him, I realized it was the truth. If I married you, the alcalde would use me as bait to catch you and hang you. Then he dragged me to his bedroom and tied me to a chair where I had to stay the whole night. In the morning all the servants saw me leave his room when he finally released me. Then he drove me back to the pueblo in the morning, telling everyone I spent the night with him," she cried, ashamed. "Everyone was staring at me when Don Pablo told them what had happened. Then there wasn't anything else to do but to agree to the wedding."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Zorro asked, after Victoria had finished.

"Because I was ashamed, and there is nothing you could do. My reputation is ruined, and all I can do to save it is marrying Don Pablo in a marriage of convenience."

"I can challenge him for what he did to you."

Victoria shook her head. "It won't change a thing. Even if you challenged him, what will you do after you defeated him? If you kill him, it will be murder because he doesn't stand a chance against you. It won't restore my reputation that was already damaged by my relation to you."

"I won't let him force you into a marriage you don't want. I want to marry you."

"Please, you can't do anything. I know you can't marry me because it would be your death sentence."

"Do you think I'll watch you enter a forced marriage?" he said angrily.

"But you have to. Don't try to stop it. It's too late now. I need a father..," Victoria stopped her words, biting her lips.

"A father? What do you mean by that?" Zorro asked suspiciously. "Are you pregnant?"

"I don't know. Maybe. It's possible. I think so. It's been every night in the last weeks." She tried to avoid his look as she started to cry. "I can't have a child out of wedlock. Please, it's the only chance I have. I don't care if he only wants me for my tavern if I can keep the child. I know that it's wrong what we did, but I only wanted some love in my life."

"Don't throw that away. My life has no meaning without you. You're my love, Victoria. I can't live without you, and I don't want to let you go." Zorro drew her into his arms, trying to soothe her but instead she only cried harder. "I can't marry you as Zorro, but I can marry you as myself."

"No, you can't. There's no way out," she sobbed. "If I suddenly married someone else, the alcalde would instantly think you are Zorro. It would be the same as if you married me as Zorro, and I don't want you to be responsible for your death. The only chance I have is marrying Don Pablo if I don't want to live in shame. You can't know how it has been for me the last weeks with people staring at me and talking behind my back whenever they thought I wouldn't hear."

"I know how you suffered," he said, noticing her surprise as she realized he must have been in the pueblo as his unmasked self, "but I can't let you marry him. What do you think Don Pablo will do if he finds out about the child? He doesn't appear to be the forgiving type."

Victoria suddenly became scared. He held her by the arms and made her look at him. "Marry me, Querida. Marry me today. I don't care what it means for me. Just don't leave me."

She shook her head. "You can't do that."

He wanted to say more, but then he heard the commotion from the soldiers who returned from their patrol. "I have to go before the soldiers spot Toronado."

"Please, don't interfere. Don't get yourself killed, and don't destroy me my chance for a family," Victoria begged him.

Unable to see her crying, Zorro kissed her tenderly, before he swung himself out of the window.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego is frustrated

Chapter 4

"Diego, what's bothering you?" His father leaned back into his chair in the parlor, no longer looking at the chess board on the small table between them."You haven't made a move for nearly half an hour, and I haven't seen you play so badly since I taught you the game as a child. You're about to lose after the fifth move."

Diego tried to concentrate on the chess board again, but he couldn't take off his mind from his talk with Victoria. How could he let Don Pablo force her into a marriage she didn't want? But he remembered her plea also that he shouldn't destroy her chance for a family. How could he deny her something that he couldn't give her as Zorro? Would he endanger her if he tried to marry her as himself? Would the alcalde arrest him as Zorro as Victoria feared? Would he hang Victoria beside him? But could her let her go? Could he watch her in an unhappy marriage whenever he saw her in the pueblo? What sense made his life if he lost the woman he loved? Would she even accept the man behind the mask? Should he concede to her wish? What was the right thing to do?

"Diego?" his father asked, concerned. "What's wrong? Do you want to talk?"

"I'm sorry, Father. I'm not in the mood for playing chess tonight."

"You haven't been in the mood for playing during the last weeks either," his father stated. "You either went to bed early or wanted to read in your room. Won't you tell me what's going on? What's on your mind that keeps you from concentrating on your game and makes you play like a beginner?"

Diego lifted his head and looked around in the parlor with its exquisite furniture and all the wealth it displayed. "What's all our money when I can't have what I want the most? Will I ever see my own children running around in the hacienda, have the family I always wanted? I made one mistake and now I pay the price. There's nothing left for me."

"Diego? What are you talking about? What mistake? What did you do?" his father asked. " You have me very concerned. Is there something I can do? Please tell me what's going on. What is it that keeps you from getting married? Why are talking about this tonight?"

"I'm sorry, Father, I didn't want to worry you. There's nothing you can do. I messed up my life years ago and nothing can change that. Now I stand here with empty hands and all I can offer a wife is an early widowhood."

"Diego, what did you do? Are you ill? Are you dying? What's wrong with you?"

"Everything's all right, Father. Don't worry." Diego regretted his outburst and had himself under control again, patting his father on the shoulder. "I shouldn't burden you with my problems. I can still fix it. There's only one more thing to do, and everything will be fine." He smiled. "Just remember that I always loved you."

"Diego!" his father said even more concerned. "You can't make believe that everything is fine when I have never seen you so desperate before. Why can't you trust me and tell me what's wrong? I'm your father. Why do you tell me you love as if you don't plan on coming back? What is suddenly so dangerous that you have to do when you never do anything?"

Diego rose from his chair. "Just forget what I said. I'm only tired. Please, excuse me now. I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast."

"Diego, please stay and talk. Tell me what's going on," his father pleaded.

Diego shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't." He left the parlor only to slip into the library and enter the cave through the hidden entrance. It took him only a few minutes to change into Zorro and ride out of cave on Toronado.

Z Z Z

Like the nights before, he crossed several roofs before reaching the tavern. He let himself down onto the small ledge in front of Victoria's bedroom window. With his knife he lifted the latch between the shutters, so he could open them and slip into the room, except that it didn't work tonight. The latch was blocked, and the shutters wouldn't open. After several tries, he realized that Victoria must have blocked it from the inside. He knocked on the shutters, calling her out. "Victoria, please let me in. We need to talk."

"No, please go." He heard her muffled reply.

"Victoria, please open, we can't end it like this."

"But we have to! There's no future for us." She was crying now.

"There can be. Let's get married tonight."

"No, you'll be killed. Please, go!"

"Victoria!" He knocked at the window, but she didn't open. "Please!"

Zorro was sure that she was standing right at the window, as he could clearly hear her sobbing. While he continued to knock, he waited for her to open, but instead she retreated from the window, and the sound of her crying faded. Waiting for some minutes if she would change her mind, he had to realize that it was in vain.

As the soldiers below could spot him anytime, he had to climb back onto the roof. Before he returned home, he tried the tavern doors and the window to the hallway, but they were locked as well.

In the cave he changed back into his normal outfit out of habit. Before he stacked away his black clothes, he retrieved the ring from a pocket and placed on his desk. Sitting down in the chair at his desk, he took the ring in his hand and stared at it. What could he do now after Victoria had rejected him tonight? He had been willing to risk discovery if it meant to marry the woman he loved but he could understand that her love for him forbid her to accept this. But what was his life without her? Without the woman he loved and the child she carried? Why had he ever started to court her as Zorro? In a few hours she would marry another because he had made a mess out of his life and he would never hold her again and love her. Unable to hold back his tears anymore, he put his head on the table and cried.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The wedding

Chapter 5

Getting up the next day and driving to the church for Victoria's wedding with Don Pablo felt like torture. Diego had hardly slept because he couldn't bear to lose her. She was having his child, but she let herself be forced into a marriage with a man she didn't love. He couldn't let that happen. All night long he had been tossing around in his bed trying to find a solution until he had made his plan. It was a last desperate attempt but his final chance to keep her. Victoria was right that he couldn't marry her as Zorro because this would mean a death sentence for both of them, but he wouldn't watch her marry Don Pablo.

"Diego, are you coming?" his father asked, when it was time to leave for the pueblo. "Aren't you going to have breakfast too? You look as if need a coffee to get you awake. Did you even sleep? Whatever bothers you so much that it deprives you of sleep, you should sort it out. I'm here if you want to talk."

"Thank you, Father. I will do my best to find a solution. I'll have a coffee, but I can't eat anything now," Diego said, hiding his nervousness. "I don't feel very well today. Would you mind if I take the carriage?"

"Are you afraid you might fall from your horse, Diego?" his father said in disgust at the prospect. "You used to be such a good horseman."

Z Z Z

Victoria looked tired when his father led her to the altar and though she tried to appear happy with a forced smile, Diego didn't miss her red eyes from crying as she passed by his pew. After Alejandro had left Victoria at the altar, he sat down next to Diego to listen to the padre's oration about matrimony. As it was expected of a bride, Victoria was very nervous, but she also looked around a few times as if she feared Zorro would appear and interrupt the wedding. The alcalde also counted on Zorro's appearance and had stationed soldiers inside and outside the church, waiting on his call to arrest Zorro if he tried to stop the ceremony.

"I don't think Zorro will come to the wedding today," whispered his father, pointing at the soldiers. "He hasn't been seen in the pueblo since Victoria announced her engagement."

When it was time for the couple to make their vows, the padre asked the gathered congregation if there were any objections. It was the moment Diego had been waiting for. He rose from the pallet and stepped forward.

"Diego, what are you doing?" his father whispered. "Stay put! You're disturbing the wedding!"

Diego ignored him and walked to the altar, going down on his knees before Victoria. "Victoria, I have always loved you, and I can't see you married to a man you don't love. Please marry me."

Victoria looked at him, stunned. "Diego, why are you saying this now? Why didn't you say something years ago? Before there was Zorro?"

"Don Diego, stay out of this," Don Pedro said angrily. "This is my wedding. Go somewhere else to find a bride."

"Will you marry me?" Diego repeated his question.

Victoria shook her head. "I can't marry you. It's too late now. My reputation is ruined, and you can't marry someone like me. If I married you, I'd only make you unhappy, and I care too much for you to do that to you. I accepted Don Pablo's proposal and will marry him."

Don Pablo's initial anger at the sudden interruption was now replaced by a satisfied grin. "Didn't you hear what she said, Don Diego? You're too late. She would have taken you before Zorro showed her what a real man is, but now she's agreed to marry me. You'd better get up, so we can continue with the ceremony."

"Don't think I will give up so easily." Diego said confidently, as he rose from his knees. Gently, he put his hands on Victoria's shoulders, before he bent his head to whisper into her ear. "You carry my child under your heart, and I won't let you go." He released her again, as he stepped back and opened his hand to display the ring he had retrieved from his pocket.

Victoria eyes went from the familiar ring to his face, and suddenly turning white from shock, she stumbled backward, putting her hand on her chest.

"What did you say to her?" Don Pablo demanded to know.

"Do you want me to say it aloud or will you marry me?" Diego challenged her, knowing too well that she could neither let her pregnancy nor his identity become public at this moment.

"No," she shook her head, shocked by the unexpected revelation. "I will marry you, Diego."

"What did you say to her?" Don Pablo attacked Diego, grabbing him by his lapels. "Do you think because your father is rich you can come up here like this, interrupt my wedding and force a woman to marry you when she said No to you? Twice?"

Diego pushed Pablo's hands away and looked at him icily. "I know why you want to marry Victoria, but she will marry me. You heard her. You have lost."

"I won't leave before you tell me what you whispered into her ear," Don Pablo insisted. "How are you blackmailing her?" "Victoria?" he turned to her. "What did Don Diego say? Was it about money? Did he threaten to ruin your business by using his family's influence?"

"I can't tell," Victoria said.

"Victoria," the padre addressed her. "A marriage is a joining of free wills and nobody can force you to do something you don't want. Who do you want to marry?"

"I will marry Diego." Swaying a little, she reached out for support and Diego steadied her, putting his arm around her back for a moment.

"Diego, what are you doing?" his father had left his pew and joined him at the altar. "How can you do this to Victoria? Forcing her to marry you with whatever you said? Is Don Pablo's suspicion true that you're using your money to get her?"

He wanted to say more but Diego silenced him with his raised hand. "Not now, Father. I'm in the middle of my wedding."

"But you can't marry like this, Diego, stealing another man's bride at the altar and forcing her to marry you," his father objected.

"You always wanted me to get married and today I will whether you like the circumstances or not but you can be my witness." Defeated by Diego's determination, his father gave in and nodded in agreement, as Diego turned to the padre again. "Can we go on with the ceremony now?"

When Victoria nodded, the padre asked them if they wanted to marry each other. Diego's answer was straight and firm, while Victoria agreed with a shaky voice, hardly taking her eyes off Diego, earning her a frown from the padre. "Is this really what you want, Victoria?" the padre asked her again. "Do you want to marry Diego de la Vega?"

"I do." Her answer was louder now and less shaky the second time.

"No! She agreed to marry me!" Don Pablo interrupted again, who had refused to leave the altar, and was standing next to the couple, but it was too late because the padre declared them husband and wife.

Diego kissed her tenderly, but as soon as they looked up again, the alcalde rose from his seat and addressed the soldiers. "Arrest him! Arrest Zorro!"


End file.
